Would you trust this business?

Imagine that you run a large marketing firm and you’re looking to hire a freelance copywriter for occasional projects.

You do research, you weed through the ads on Craigslist and you compile a list of contendors.

Now, imagine this:

One copywriting business is called “The ORIGINAL Koncept & Kopy Overload.”

Would you trust this business’s credibility?

Copywriting is a business that demands accuracy of the written word. Businesses often change the spelling or word choice to reflect a clever play on words or a double entendre. However, in this case, changing the C’s to K’s adds no value to the name. (Neither does capitalizing the word original.) It may be an attempt to be cute — but is cuteness a quality for which ones looks when hiring a copywriter?

Because of this, I do not trust the company’s credibility. The company may, in fact, do excellent work, but I wouldn’t go any further than glancing over the name.

It would be different if it were a restaurant or a household product. The fact that it’s a copywriting business — again, a business that demands accuracy of the written word — makes me wary to go near it.

10 responses to “Would you trust this business?”

I abhor such “creative” and “cute” spellings! And in this case, you really have to wonder about their credibility, unfortunately. For “Kwic Stop” and other such abominations, it seems like just the influence of bad or lazy (or genuinely ill-willed) marketing consultants. But in this case, for this kind of business, you really have to wonder….

Yeah, I agree with Len. Unless there is a clear and meaningful purpose to the errors, I cannot see why any company would use them. It is a bad first impression for the company, and turns off many prospective customers.

How about newspapers and magazines with flagrant spelling errors in their “About Us” or “Contact Us” sections? It might not seem fair to pick on the little guys, but here’s a great one from the Post Messenger in Montello, WI:

Office Manger: Judy BergumPressroom Manger: Keith Hutter

I’m picturing Judy and Keith lying on their backs with slops being dumped all over their bellies, the office and pressroom employees crowding around licking their chops…

I would think that, many times, the incorrect spelling of business names like Kopy instead of Copy is due to the fact that the correct spelling is already copyright protected. I noticed one comment included the example of “Kwic Stop”. Here in GA, there is a “Kwik Stop,” so maybe one of them just picked the spelling that was left.